More Pictures

I have posted more pictures on Facebook and Spapfish: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2225482021/a=151443402_151443402/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Enjoy!

Weekend in the Countryside

I went to the hodoo last weekend with my counterpart Tamira, her husband Bayar, and a couple he works with - Batbold and Oyunaa.  We left at 9:00 p.m. on Friday and didn’t get to their friend’s ger until 3:00a.m.!  His name was Poinsic and his wife’s name was Nergui, which means “no name”.  It is a common name in Mongolia.  I was so tired and I know I was snoring in the car.  We walked in and the husband offered us fermented mare’s milk to drink and his tobacco to smell.  I like smelling the tobacco, you can sniff it or rub a little on your nostrils.  The mare’s milk tastes sour!  I just pretend to take a sip which you do even if you don’t like it, but I try to really act like I’m doing it.  I wonder if they know!?  I found out that you have to milk the horses every 2 hours!  How annoying!  Tamira and Bayar bought 60 liters of mare’s milk to take home!  So when we got there Friday night, I asked where the outhouse was and they told me to go just anywhere outside.  I was peeing in the middle of a snow-covered field!  It was just funny.  Then the dog was trying to come near me so I had to finish quickly!  They also had about 100 goats and sheep.  When I would walk out at night to go to the bathroom, all I saw were eyes in the darkness staring at me!  It was a little frightening at first!
    The next day, we went hiking after breakfast and the boys went to try and hunt some birds.  They didn’t catch any, so we didn’t eat lunch.  It was ok, I was reading a good book that Liz sent me (yes…it’s about vampires) and didn’t really care.  For dinner, we had goat.  Goat meat is actually pretty good!  But listen to how Poinsic cooked it…In our ger, we had a stove with a dung fire (because it was so cold!) and he put hot coals in there to heat them up.  Then on the top of the stove, he put on a pan with onions, garlic, and the goat meat.  He then took the coals out of the dung fire and pushed them into the pieces of goat meat to sear it!  I probably ate a little bit of poop!  We also peeled potatoes and put them in there and let it all steam with some water.  It was so good!!!!!!!!!  Goat = good, mutton = terrible.  After that, we played a Mongolian card game. I know the rules, but I am so slow and really have to think about the moves I’m making!  On Sunday, the family was having some tourists stay with them for a couple days but they were staying in their winter ger.  So we had to move everything from their summer ger to their winter ger!  It was 10:45 and I said, “When are the tourists coming?  When should we be ready?”  They were coming at 11!  Oh well, they were late and we were running behind also.  They were a nice family though from London.  They didn’t want us to go home because they didn’t speak any Mongolian! 

Poinsic making the goat on top of the stove

Me taking a picture with the grandparents

They made me put on the dung basket so my family would think I had picked up dung.  You guys know me better than that!  I tried to sling it in the basket but it went about 15 feet behind me.  I was afraid it would fall on my head!

They had the cutest children and they were so happy! 

Group picture!

Student Outing

We had a student outing on 2 weeks ago on Saturday. They told me that we were going to have competitions for the different classes and to meet at 9:30 a.m. downtown in front of the national theatre. I got there at 9:15 and there were a lot of students there which surprised me because Mongolians are always late! Anyway, the other teachers showed up at 10:00. My students yelled at them saying, “Don’t be late! Be on time!” I taught them that. It was really funny. Then we walked an hour and a half to this big field on the outside of town. The competitions were really fun! There was a dancing competition and a version of Simon Says. They also had to take things from nature and glue them on a piece of poster board to make a picture. Well since Mongolians litter, most of them had trash and cigarette butts on their posters! Things I or most Americans would never touch! It was definitely interesting. There was another game where they picked 5 people from every class and made them stand in a line. When they said go, the students had to take whatever items or clothing they had on them and make a line. Whoever made the longest line won. People were taking out and off everything - hair ties, phones, money, bra straps, pants, shirts… I saw 3 boys in just their underwear and one of my girl students without her shirt. I felt kind of strange but no one else seemed to mind. I guess it was normal. We would all be fired if that happened in the states.

Aren't they pretty?!



Me with girls from my 2C class





Me with boys from my 2C class.  They speak English really well!



They are my favorite class but don’t tell anyone!

Alcohol Awareness Week Update

Our alcohol awareness week went really well!  But a lot of the other volunteers didn’t do anything with it.  It was frustrating because I made all the handouts for everyone and Hannah (the other girl in charge) got food and prizes donated.  How easy was it for people to post some signs and bring some students?  Oh well.  But I think the students really enjoyed themselves!  Talk Talk English (an English school here) donated 60,000 tugrogs which is about $50 and 20 free hours of English tutoring for prizes!!!  All we had to do was show a small commercial of theirs.  I made a flyer for the week that says “Alcohol Awareness Week” at the top with the dates and then has each day listed.  We had a essay contest due on Monday, poster contest on Tuesday, students had to look at flyers and brochures hung around school on Wednesday, and Thursday was our party.  The bottom is a Mongolian saying about alcohol.  It says something like alcohol affects everything - you, your family and friends, job, school, etc except the bottle.  All in all for our first alcohol week, I’d say it was a success. 

Hannah and Tamira

Students watching the alcohol video

Group Picture

Alcohol Awareness Week

The Peace Corps wants us to start an alcohol awareness week so I am one of the lucky ones that gets to head it up in UB. Yay me!  I’m a sub-warden.  Hannah, who I love, is the warden.  She has a lot contacts so I said that I would head up the essay and poster contests.  They seemed easy to organize and my counterpart, Tamira, helped me a lot.  I felt bad for her because I had to have her translate so many things into Mongolian.  We are also doing this a little late but for the first ever alcohol awareness week I don’t really care.  On Thursday next week (10/16), we are having a get-together at my school with an alcohol documentary, activities, a band, and food.  We will also announce the winners of the contest.  We got two sponsors (because the Peace Corps certainly didn’t give us any money) - Khas Bank and the American Embassy.